Tag Archives: air pollution

The Threat of Wildfires to Air Quality and Human Health

Wildfires in America are becoming larger, more frequent, and more destructive, driven by climate change and existing land management practices. This is putting more people in danger, not only from fire itself, but also from exposure to smoke, which can travel thousands of miles and affect the health of millions of people. Our publications explore the increase in wildfire events and their impacts on human health. All are free to read or download.

The Chemistry of Fires at the Wildland-Urban Interface

Wildfires in America are becoming larger, more frequent, and more destructive, driven by climate change and existing land management practices. Many of these fires occur at the wildland-urban interface (WUI), areas where development and wildland areas overlap and which are increasingly at risk of devastating fires as communities continue to …[more]

Wildland Fires: Toward Improved Understanding and Forecasting of Air Quality Impacts: Proceedings of a Workshop

Wildland fires pose a growing threat to air quality and human health. Fire is a natural part of many landscapes, but the extent of area burned and the severity of fires have been increasing, concurrent with human movement into previously uninhabited fire-prone areas and forest management practices that have increased fuel loads. These changes …[more]

Frameworks for Protecting Workers and the Public from Inhalation Hazards

Individuals in the United States and Americans abroad are exposed to inhalation hazards from a variety of sources, and these hazards can have both short- and long-term adverse effects on health. For example, exposure to wildfire smoke, which contains particulate matter and toxic chemicals, can lead to respiratory problems, increased risk for …[more]

Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth: From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series

To explore issues related to the effects of disasters on children and youth and lessons learned from experiences during previous disasters, the virtual workshop From Hurricane Katrina to Paradise Wildfires, Exploring Themes in Disaster Human Services was convened on July 22 and 23, 2020, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and …[more]

Leveraging Advances in Remote Geospatial Technologies to Inform Precision Environmental Health Decisions: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief

Leveraging Advances in Remote Geospatial Technologies to Inform Precision Environmental Health Decisions, a virtual workshop held on April 14-15, 2021, explored how advances in geospatial technologies can inform precision environmental health, the targeted public health interventions that reach the right populations at the right time. The …[more]

Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness: Proceedings of a Workshop

California and other wildfire-prone western states have experienced a substantial increase in the number and intensity of wildfires in recent years. Wildlands and climate experts expect these trends to continue and quite likely to worsen in coming years. Wildfires and other disasters can be particularly devastating for vulnerable communities. …[more]

A Century of Wildland Fire Research: Contributions to Long-term Approaches for Wildland Fire Management: Proceedings of a Workshop

Although ecosystems, humans, and fire have coexisted for millennia, changes in geology, ecology, hydrology, and climate as well as sociocultural, regulatory, and economic factors have converged to make wildland fire management exceptionally challenging for U.S. federal, state, and local authorities. Given the mounting, unsustainable costs and …[more]

Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises

Climate is changing, forced out of the range of the past million years by levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not seen in the Earth’s atmosphere for a very, very long time. Lacking action by the world’s nations, it is clear that the planet will be warmer, sea level will rise, and patterns of rainfall will change. But the future …[more]

Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Summary of a Workshop on Current Knowledge and Research Gaps

This book presents a summary of the Workshop on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Current Knowledge and Research Gaps, held April 13 and 14, 2010, in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the National Research Council’s Committee on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Current Knowledge and …[more]

Hydrologic Effects of a Changing Forest Landscape

Of all the outputs of forests, water may be the most important. Streamflow from forests provides two-thirds of the nation’s clean water supply. Removing forest cover accelerates the rate that precipitation becomes streamflow; therefore, in some areas, cutting trees causes a temporary increase in the volume of …[more]

NRC and IOM Led Efforts to Reduce Smoking in the United States

The National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine have a history of leading efforts to reduce smoking in the United States for the benefit of public health. Twenty-five years ago this month, the National Research Council released a highly influential report that led to the smoking ban on airliners. Dr. Donald Stedman shared with us his recollections from the time when he served as a member of the NRC authoring committee for The Airliner Cabin Environment: Air Quality and Safety.

“I believe that my participation in that committee will stand as my major contribution to human welfare regardless of my research and other activities. Twenty-five years ago the tobacco industry owned the media. If an editor put in anything bad about tobacco his paper lost their cigarette ad revenue. Congress did indeed pass the ban [on smoking on flights] but only for short flights and only for two years. Then their mail was apparently 100-1 in favor of a nationwide ban, which they did, and now it is worldwide.”

Since publication of this National Research Council report, the Institute of Medicine has continued to lead the way in the fight to lower the U.S. smoking rate. Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation reviewed effective prevention and treatment interventions and new tobacco control policies for adoption by federal and state governments. Some of this book’s recommendations were considered controversial at the time, such as smoking bans for all nonresidential indoor settings nationwide and a requirement for all public and private health insurance plans to make coverage of smoking cessation programs a lifetime benefit.

More recently, Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence focused on the relationship between secondhand smoke and heart problems. This book reported that smoking bans are an effective way to reduce the risk of heart attacks and heart disease associated with exposure to secondhand smoke. The book also confirmed that there is sufficient evidence that breathing secondhand smoke boosts nonsmokers’ risk for heart problems.

These and other books about the public health effects of smoking are available to read or download.

	Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation The nation has made tremendous progress in reducing tobacco use during the past 40 years. Despite extensive knowledge about successful interventions, however, approximately one-quarter of American adults still smoke. Tobacco-related illnesses and death place a huge burden on our society…
	Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence Data suggest that exposure to secondhand smoke can result in heart disease in nonsmoking adults. Recently, progress has been made in reducing involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke through legislation banning smoking in workplaces, restaurants, and other public places. The effect …
	Clearing the Smoke: Assessing the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction Despite overwhelming evidence of tobacco’s harmful effects and pressure from anti-smoking advocates, current surveys show that about one-quarter of all adults in the United States are smokers. This audience is the target for a wave of tobacco products and …
	Growing Up Tobacco Free: Preventing Nicotine Addiction in Children and Youths Tobacco use kills more people than any other addiction and we know that addiction starts in childhood and youth. We all agree that youths should not smoke, but how can this be accomplished? What prevention messages will they find compelling? …
	Combating Tobacco Use in Military and Veteran Populations The health and economic costs of tobacco use in military and veteran populations are high. In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) make recommendations on how …
	The Airliner Cabin Environment and the Health of Passengers and Crew Although poor air quality is probably not the hazard that is foremost in peoples minds as they board planes, it has been a concern for years. Passengers have complained about dry eyes, sore throat, dizziness, headaches, and other …
	The Airliner Cabin Environment: Air Quality and Safety Each year Americans take more than 300 million plane trips staffed by a total of some 70,000 flight attendants. The health and safety of these individuals are the focus of this volume from the Committee on Airliner Cabin Air Quality. …

For Earth Day, Resources to Communicate the Science of Climate Change

The impacts of human activities—particularly emissions of carbon dioxide, but also including other greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and population growth—are so vast that they will largely control the future of the Earth’s climate system. This future could bring a relatively mild change in climate, or it could deliver an extreme change from today’s climate to entirely different climate conditions that will last many thousands of years. The eventual course of the climate system over millennia will be determined largely by the actions taken this century by governments, businesses, and individuals around the world.

Earth and its residents are entering a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene—in which human activities are a primary force affecting climate. Our actions this century to reduce or increase greenhouse gas emissions will determine whether the Anthropocene is a relatively mild event or a severe transition extending over many thousands of years.

Society is beginning to make important choices regarding future greenhouse gas emissions. Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts over Decades to Millennia considers the projected climate changes and impacts that would occur if greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were stabilized at particular concentration levels. While this book does not recommend or justify any particular stabilization target, it does provide important scientific insights about the relationships among emissions, greenhouse gas concentrations, temperatures, and impacts.

The books from the America’s Climate Choices series address the serious and sweeping issues associated with global climate change, including the science and technology challenges involved, and provide advice on actions and strategies the nation can take to respond. Advancing the Science of Climate Change, Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change, Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change, and Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change are an authoritative set of analyses to inform and guide responses to climate change across the nation.

These books and others from the National Research Council are available to read online at no charge. The catalog pages for these books contain links to videos and other materials that are great teacher resources. If you teach at the undergraduate or graduate level, visit www.nap.edu/contact.html to request an examination copy of these or any other titles that you feel would be appropriate to use as a textbook for a course.

	Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts over Decades to Millennia Emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels have ushered in a new epoch where human activities will largely determine the evolution of Earth’s climate. Because carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is long lived, it can effectively lock the Earth…
	Advancing the Science of Climate Change Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for–and in many cases is already affecting–a broad range of human and natural systems. The compelling case for these conclusions is provided in Advancing the…
	Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change Climate change, driven by the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, poses serious, wide-ranging threats to human societies and natural ecosystems around the world. The largest overall source of greenhouse gas emissions is the burning…
	Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change Global climate change is one of America’s most significant long-term policy challenges. Human activity–especially the use of fossil fuels, industrial processes, livestock production, waste disposal, and land use change–is affecting global average…
	Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change Across the United States, impacts of climate change are already evident. Heat waves have become more frequent and intense, cold extremes have become less frequent, and patterns of rainfall are likely changing. The proportion of precipitation that falls as…
	Ocean Acidification: A National Strategy to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Ocean The ocean has absorbed a significant portion of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions. This benefits human society by moderating the rate of climate change, but also causes unprecedented changes to ocean chemistry. Carbon dioxide taken up by the ocean…
	National Security Implications of Climate Change for U.S. Naval Forces In response to the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), the National Research Council appointed a committee operating under the auspices of the Naval Studies Board to study the national security implications of climate change for U.S. naval forces. In conducting…
	Understanding Earth’s Deep Past: Lessons for Our Climate Future There is little dispute within the scientific community that humans are changing Earth’s climate on a decadal to century time-scale. By the end of this century, without a reduction in emissions, atmospheric CO2 is projected to increase to levels that Earth…
	Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements The world’s nations are moving toward agreements that will bind us together in an effort to limit future greenhouse gas emissions. With such agreements will come the need for all nations to make accurate estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor…
	Modeling the Economics of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation: Summary of a Workshop Models are fundamental for estimating the possible costs and effectiveness of different policies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is a wide array of models to perform such analysis, differing in the level of technological detail, treatment…
	Monitoring Climate Change Impacts: Metrics at the Intersection of the Human and Earth Systems The stresses associated with climate change are expected to be felt keenly as human population grows to a projected 9 billion by the middle of this century, increasing the demand for resources and supporting infrastructure. Therefore, information to assess…
	Global Sources of Local Pollution: An Assessment of Long-Range Transport of Key Air Pollutants to and from the United States Recent advances in air pollution monitoring and modeling capabilities have made it possible to show that air pollution can be transported long distances and that adverse impacts of emitted pollutants cannot be confined to one country or even one continent….